Printers

Every Computer Needs a Printer

Anyone who has ever worked on a project to then have their printer fail knows that printers are among the most crucial of all hardware elements in an office set up. Printers have come a very long way from the dot matrix machines with which we first had to work. Those slow, clumsy and inelegant printers were thankfully retired a long time ago.

Today we have some very sophisticated printers including models that feature all or any combination of the following functions: scanning, photocopying, faxing and printing. The quality of today's printers is far beyond what was available even a few years ago and is testament to the genius of those working behind the scenes to bring us the latest innovations. In fact, printer technology has become so inexpensive that most printers are being sold for little or nothing and in order to recoup their money, printer companies charge an arm and a leg for the print cartridges or toner without which the printers are rendered useless.

There are two main kinds of printers - laser and inkjet. Inkjet printers spray a fine jet of ink onto the paper. They produce great results but top quality printing can be expensive because of the amount of ink that they use. Laser printers are the top of the food chain for their clarity, precision and brilliance but they are far more costly than their inkjet cousins. Most businesses buy laser printers whereas most home use machines are inkjet printers.

Printers have also evolved to do photo printing. Some printers are dedicated solely to the printing up for photos. These photo printers are revolutionizing the photo industry as more and more people are turning to digital photography and opting to only make prints of those pictures that are truly worth keeping. While most photo printers can work through a personal computer a good number of them can work directly from the digital camera. Some cameras are sold along with their own printers. However, the ink cartridges for these printers are quite expensive and if you plan on printing up many pictures it might be more economical to simply have them processed and printed the old-fashioned way.